There are two ways of searching for items or parts in SystemWeaver. This article describes them, and provides recommended search guidelines.

Search Recommendations

When running a General Search across the entire database, we recommend the following: 

  • Do filter your search using Properties, such as Item Type, and, e.g., an Attribute.
  • When running a search for an attribute value, always specify a specific Attribute to search.
  • Avoid using a saved search for an attribute value that does not specify the specific Attribute to search in. 
  • Avoid running a search for an attribute value across all Attributes.


The above is good database searching practice in general and is especially important when searching across the entire database (General Search), as long read calls can affect other system users. 

Searching in a View

You can search for items within a view which is really a set of items as opposed to the entire database. This method does not involve the server*** since the search is done in the client on data available in the client. The most common example of this is probably searching in the Structure tree.

  1. Select any item in the structure tree view and click the Find button on the Items ribbon (or Ctrl+F).
  2. To search for text, enter text into the Find field as shown above, and check the desired Search in boxes. You also have options to Match Case and Exact match.
  3. You can also search for Item Properties and Attributes. In the above example, only items of type 'Function requirement' will be searched. 
  4. Once you get your results, you can use the Filter on Search Results and/or Select search result options to filter the view to only include the items you searched for (along with their parent items to maintain context) or to select them.In the above example search for "Audio" across "Function requirements", 35 items were found as indicated above and they are highlighted green in the structure tree within their context:


Below is an example of searching in a configured Grid view, by first clicking in the view to ensure the focus is there, and then using the Find (Ctrl+F) option: 



Note: Only the items that are actually visible in the tree or view will be searched. This means that you may get different results for different tree view setting selections.


Tip: If you have planned to search for an item you had recently found and closed, you may find it in the Recently closed items on the Open item page: 

Global Search Using Open Item

There are various search options available via the Open item page and the Open item drop-down menu. 


All of the search requests originating from the Open item menu as described below are sent to the server which will execute the search and send back a list of matching items on the Open item page. 


Select Item Type

This option is used whenever you need to search for all items of a specific item type.

  1. Click Select item type to open the Select type dialog where you can select among all item types there are in the SystemWeaver database. In the Filter box at the top, you can type letters that can be found in the Name or SID values. This option is especially useful in case the list of types is long and includes many sub-types. All item types that contain the entered string will be displayed in the filtered list while the others will be hidden.

    In the example above, all available types that include the "des" string are listed.

    The Include deprecated option should normally not be used since it will also include types that are marked as 'deprecated' and thus not to be used.
    The Include base item option is normally used only by SystemWeaver administrators to select Config item used for configuring the SystemWeaver environment and the swExplorer.
  2. Double-click on a type or select the type you are searching for and click OK. A list of matching items will display. You can then sort by any of the fields. 


Note: If the selected item type happens to be abstract, the list will be empty and the Select type dialog will present a list of (non-abstract) sub-types from which you can choose.


Alternatively, you can begin your item type search via the Open item drop-down menu by selecting a frequently opened Type or the Other item type option.



Example Search Results


Select Library

This option is used whenever you need to specify a library, typically when selecting access rights to new items.

  1. Click on Select library to open the Select library dialog, where you can select among all libraries in the SystemWeaver database.In the Filter box at the top, you can type letters that can be found in the library name you are looking for. All libraries that contain the entered string will be displayed in the filtered list while the others will be hidden.
    The Filter on write access checkbox is usually checked by default in contexts where it is assumed that you will add something to a library.
  2. To select a library, select it and click OK or double-click on the library name in the list.

Example Search Results

This option is used for specifying search criteria when searching the entire database** and not just in a specific library, item structure or view. 

  1. Click on General Search to open the Find dialog which offers many alternative search criteria options. (Alternatively, you can access the General Search option in the Open item drop-down menu.)

    The search options for searching in the server are almost the same as for searching in a view, except that you can only search for items, and only search for text in the item Name:

    You can also search for item Properties and Attributes, as shown in the above example.

  2. Enter your search criteria and click OK. Your search results will display in a list that you can filter further by any field. If you search takes a very long time, the notification bar will display so you know that your request is being processed.

In a database-wide search as described above, you cannot search within Descriptions, Attributes, or Notes, nor do you have the option to search for specific part or node conditions. These options are, however, available via the Find ribbon menu option (Ctrl+F) when searching in a view or structure tree, i.e., when you are not doing a global database search. 


Note: If you enter a specific item type in the Item type field as part of your search criteria, your results will return items of the specified item type as well as items of all item types that inherit from the specified item type. If you only wish to return items of a specified item type and NOT those that are of inherited types, use the Open item drop-down menu and select the Other item type option.


Tip: If the filter you are looking for is not available on the Items tab, Custom and XML options are available. For an XML example, see How to Filter by Owner.


If you find yourself searching for the same item often, consider adding it to your favorites. 

* A SystemWeaver object being an Item, Node, Part, Issue etc. Such objects are technically made available in client applications, connected to a SystemWeaver server. In such applications, like the swExplorer, a SystemWeaver object is technically represented by various objects, in the technology of that application. Since each such object is connected to the SystemWeaver server any such representation can be considered to "be" the SystemWeaver object, in all practical aspects.

** Technically, searching among data available in the swExplorer client and searching in the SystemWeaver server are quite different operations. The Find dialog still presents a common interface to these operations.

*** In case the search requires data that has not already been cached into the server, the search may trigger reading of data from the server. For example, the first time you search in description texts you will notice an additional time to load the descriptions and perform the search. The next time you perform a similar search, it will be much quicker.